Naropa University

School Description

The Naropa Experience

Perform in an Indian classical music ensemble. Write a thesis on creativity and social action. Take yoga for credit. Volunteer in a community garden. Study Tibetan. Spend the weekend at a meditation retreat. Intern at the Peace Jam Foundation. Conduct research on the nature of consciousness.

These are some of the opportunities available to students that make Naropa such a dynamic educational experience.

Naropa History

Naropa University (then the Naropa Institute) was founded in 1974 in Boulder, Colorado by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, a lineage holder of both the Kagyü and Nyingma Buddhist traditions. Established to unite the great ideas and pedagogies of the East and West, the Naropa Institute attracted some of the country's most forward-thinking artists and scholars to teach—people such as Allen Ginsberg, Ken Wilbur, Anne Waldman, John Cage, Meredith Monk, and many others.

Naropa Culture

Naropa University continues to attract students and faculty who are interested in pushing the bounds of their disciplines through scholarship and art—and their minds through contemplative practice.

Naropa's campus culture reflects the Buddhist-inspired, ecumenical nature of the university's curriculum, grounded as it is in the world's wisdom traditions. As a consequence, diversity is deeply respected, as are students' individual academic and spiritual paths. This respect extends to the larger community, where Naropa students contribute as volunteers and interns. And to Naropa's relationship to the planet; environmental stewardship is integral to Naropa's campus life.

Naropa Traditions

At the beginning of classes and meetings, Naropa community members bow. This simple gesture is a sign of mutual respect and creates a centering moment to gather thoughts.

Once each semester, Naropa suspends classes for Community Practice Day. During Community Practice Day, Naropa students, faculty and staff attend lectures, participate in new forms of contemplative practice and perform service in the community.

This school also offers:

MA

The Contemplative Psychotherapy & Buddhist Psychology master's degree at Naropa University is designed for future psychotherapists who are interested in combining the therapeutic insights and methodologies of the East and West with their own quest for self-knowledge.
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Do you desire to help others in a counseling setting? Do you want to be fully present with your clients?
The Contemplative Psychotherapy & Buddhist Psychology master's degree at Naropa University is designed for future psychotherapists who are interested in combining the therapeutic insights and methodologies of the East and West with their own quest for self-knowledge.
Through meditation classes, retreats, and individual instruction, this three-year intensive program will help you understand the personal wisdom or "brilliant sanity" we all carry inside. This provides your undergirding as you study Buddhist and Humanistic approaches to psychology and begin your clinical internship.
Because of the deep personal and clinical training offered at Naropa, graduates go on to become deeply compassionate counselors working to help others access their fundamental goodness and natural wisdom.
Contemplative Psychotherapy & Buddhist Psychology Master's Degree Highlights
Participate as a cohort in Maitri meditation retreats in the Colorado mountains.
Become part of a closely connected student community that will help you refine your interpersonal skills and more fully understand yourself.
Take Buddhist Psychology classes each semester and work with an individual meditation instructor.
Take part in weekly Clinical Tutorial Groups during your internship year with two other students and two clinical faculty. A specially designed meditation practice helps you and your colleagues develop the ability to "be present in relationship."
Complete a 700-hour clinical internship.
Duration: Full-time, three-year cohort program
Careers of Contemplative Psychotherapy & Buddhist Psychology Program Graduates
Therapist, Rape Assistance and Awareness Program, Denver, CO
Family attachment...
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Naropa University’s Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics houses one of the most storied creative writing programs in the country. Founded by Allen Ginsberg and Anne Waldman in 1974, Naropa’s creative writing programs hew closely to their contemplative, avant-garde, and socially-aware roots, offering writers opportunities to not just think and write outside the box but also to consider whether, in fact, there is a box.
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Naropa University’s Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics houses one of the most storied creative writing programs in the country. Founded by Allen Ginsberg and Anne Waldman in 1974, Naropa’s creative writing programs hew closely to their contemplative, avant-garde, and socially-aware roots, offering writers opportunities to not just think and write outside the box but also to consider whether, in fact, there is a box.
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Naropa University, The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics has developed a new Low-Residency Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing to begin in Spring 2016. This is a two-year program running in Fall-Spring-Summer semesters over each of the two years of the program and conducted primarily through written exchange of work and response between student and instructor. Faculty in the MFA in Creative Writing program are all active, published writers accomplished at mentoring students individually.
Weekend (Friday-Saturday-Sunday) residencies will take place in the fall and spring semesters, while the summer residency is a full week in June, integrated within the Jack Kerouac School's renowned Summer Writing Program. Here students attend workshops, lectures, panels, and readings by numerous visiting writers. Each spring and fall residency will feature an accomplished guest writer in addition to workshops and events with the semester’s faculty Instructor.
Highlights of the Low-Residency MFA Creative Writing Program:
Two-year degree with 14 days of residency per year in Boulder CO
Open-genre curriculum reflecting Jack Kerouac School history and our ongoing commitment to innovative writing
One-on-one mentorship with...
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To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Naropa University, the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics unveiled a new MFA in Creative Writing and Poetics curriculum.
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Online/Distance Program Available starting Spring 2016!
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Naropa University, the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics unveiled a new MFA in Creative Writing and Poetics curriculum.
Highlights of the new curriculum include:
Cohort course: develops a strong sense of community among MFA students and hosts visiting writers in the classroom.
Revised workshops and poetics seminars: reflects both Jack Kerouac School history and our ongoing commitment to innovative writing (smaller class sizes).
Expanded thesis experience: introduces thesis work in community, followed by a semester of independent work with mentoring faculty advisor.
Additional features: includes more funding via teaching opportunities, clearer focus on contemplative writing and practice, support around professional development and career goals, plus expanded reading series and events!
The MFA in Creative Writing and Poetics is a two-year, 48-credit, in-residence creative writing degree program. Students typically enroll in 9 credit hours per semester and 12 credit hours in the Summer Writing Program (over two summers).
Curriculum
The program offers an open genre curriculum within a contemplative academic environment, providing MFA students maximum flexibility within the degree. Graduate students are encouraged to take classes across genres, enabling them to investigate a personal, intensely original writing process and style. We challenge the notion of safe or generic works and create a space for radical exploration and experimentation.
The Kerouac School offers specialized creative writing workshops that focus on innovative prose, poetry, and cross-genre composition. In addition to these workshops, students have the opportunity to broaden their scope...
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Naropa University’s distance degree in Ecopsychology integrates psychology and ecology in the study of human-nature relationships. At Naropa University, contemplative practice and transpersonal psychology provide a foundation for this integration.
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Naropa University’s distance degree in Ecopsychology integrates psychology and ecology in the study of human-nature relationships. At Naropa University, contemplative practice and transpersonal psychology provide a foundation for this integration.
The two-year, 38-credit low-residency program begins in the summer semester. Each year, students take two courses on campus in the summer and two courses online in both fall and spring semesters. The first year is devoted to study of ecopsychology, ecology, transpersonal psychology, and contemplative practice. In the second year, students complete both intellectual and service-learning projects, in addition to taking two more courses of their choosing.
The program kicks off with a two-week long intensive incorporating two courses, Transpersonal Psychology Intensive and Engaged Contemplative Practices. Students then work online for fall and spring courses, with a three-day residential intensive here in Boulder in January.
In the second summer, students again come to Boulder to join their learning community for two courses that run back to back and last approximately two weeks. These courses are Psychology of Wilderness Experience, which involves camping outdoors and a three-day solo, and Ecopsychology Training, which is held back on campus. All of the residential courses contain significant experiential components.
Educational foci
Provide an overview of the intellectual, philosophical, and practical aspects of transpersonal ecopsychology.
Deepen understanding of, and connection with, nature and articulate emerging worldviews about the human-nature relationship.
Contribute in some tangible way to the earth and local communities as a result of our insights, actions, and service work.
Create a strong and...
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Our planet is in environmental crisis. Fossil fuels, fracking, deforestation, climate change, industrialization and environmental justice issues – all of these have created an ecological emergency, which calls for exceptional leadership. Naropa's Master of Arts in Environmental Leadership was conceived to train the leaders we need to re-direct our world towards a sustainable future.
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Our planet is in environmental crisis. Fossil fuels, fracking, deforestation, climate change, industrialization and environmental justice issues – all of these have created an ecological emergency, which calls for exceptional leadership. Naropa's Master of Arts in Environmental Leadership was conceived to train the leaders we need to re-direct our world towards a sustainable future.
Environmental Leadership students combine a rigorously academic curriculum with contemplative study, including classes in:
Leadership
Social Entrepreneurship
Non-profit organizational methods
Living Systems Science and Cosmological Views
Environmental Justice and Multicultural Frameworks, and more.
These students learn to identify patterns that separate us from our world, systems that lock us in destructive cycles. They unravel habits, and learn to rebuild and retool new, environmentally just patterns. Graduates leave empowered, ready to create and engage a responsible future.
Earn the Knowledge to Create the Change We Need
Naropa Environmental Studies alumni are now facilitating regional, city and state-level programs, including:
Leading innovative green businesses and nonprofit organizations
Directing UrbiCulture Community Farms, helping to provide affordable, local, sustainable produce to Denver communities
Recycling and Resource Conservation with the Department of Environmental Resources in Illinois.
Naropa students walk the walk, studying in one of the few U.S. schools that has divested entirely from fossil fuels. Social entrepreneurs on the Environmental Leadership path also benefit from powerful inner work. Naropa University’s contemplative style develops each student’s mindfulness, unwavering attention, and a powerful, compassionate perspective to effect global transformation.
Graduates of the Environmental Leadership Master’s Degree Program:
Experience a two-year, 39-credit MA...
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The master's degree in Religious Studies at Naropa University is a distinctive program that allows you to delve into these questions by studying and personally experiencing the contemplative traditions of the world's great religions.
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What is religion and how does it affect people, cultures, and history?
The master's degree in Religious Studies at Naropa University is a distinctive program that allows you to delve into these questions by studying and personally experiencing the contemplative traditions of the world's great religions.
Though taught in Naropa's Buddhist-inspired environment, our master's degree programs embrace the world's vast diversity of religious expression and offer the chance to not only study Buddhism but also the other great wisdom traditions, including Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and others.
Whether you choose the broader, comparative Contemplative Religions concentration or the more specific study of Indo-Tibetan Buddhism or Contemplative Judaism you will develop an understanding of the scholarly study of religion, interreligious dialogue, and engage in the contemplative practices of the faith traditions you're studying.
Religious Studies: Contemplative Judaism Master’s Degree Highlights
Study Jewish traditions and texts which emphasize the experiential dimensions of Jewish practice.
Take electives studying other contemplative faith traditions.
Take part in a Contemplative Practice Intensive.
Research and write a final master’s project paper.
Religious Studies: Contemplative Religions Master's Degree Highlights
Take part in a thirty-day Contemplative Practice Retreat in the faith tradition of your choice.
Take additional contemplative electives in one or a spectrum of traditions.
Develop interreligious dialogue skills.
Research and write a final master's project paper.
Religious Studies: Indo-Tibetan Buddhism Master's Degree Highlights
Choose an emphasis in History of Religions or Tibetan Tradition.
Take in-depth Buddhist meditation practica.
Complete Dathün: a monthlong Buddhist meditation intensive.
Research and...
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The Naropa University master's degree in Religious Studies with Language gives you the enhanced option of adding the two-year study of Sanskrit and/or Tibetan to your graduate program.
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The Naropa University master's degree in Religious Studies with Language gives you the enhanced option of adding the two-year study of Sanskrit and/or Tibetan to your graduate program.
Offering the same concentrations as the Religious Studies MA—Contemplative Religions and Indo-Tibetan Buddhism—the Religious Studies with Language masters allows you to finish your degree in two years (though many students opt to take three) while providing you with the chance to learn Sanskrit—the language of Buddhism and yoga—and Tibetan, which opens the remarkable world of Buddhist literature and teachings.
Choosing to study Sanskrit, Tibetan, or both is a compelling choice if you are interested in pursuing doctoral studies or research in a field where these languages can inform your work.
Contemplative Religions with Language Concentration
This MA degree includes all the course work of the MA Religious Studies degree with the Contemplative Religions concentration, and is enriched by training in either Sanskrit or Tibetan through two years (16 credits) of course work or more. This 61-credit concentration is designed for students who wish to join the academic study of comparative religions with interreligious dialogue, contemplative practice, and personal investigation. Students develop literacy in the living practice traditions of a variety of world religions, with special emphasis on integrating the mystical contemplative dimension with the teachings and other aspects of the traditions, as well as on learning interreligious dialogue skills for communicating across religious differences in an environment of global pluralism. Students work with faculty members who are both academically and spiritually trained...
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The master’s degree in Somatic Counseling looks at the relationship between the mind and body as a dance: As one goes, so goes the other.
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The master’s degree in Somatic Counseling looks at the relationship between the mind and body as a dance: As one goes, so goes the other.
Grounded in the assumption that the body (soma in Greek) can be used to help individuals transform, this cohort program will give you the academic, experiential, and contemplative experience necessary to begin a compassionate, clinical practice.
Distinguished by a curriculum that emphasizes mindfulness and moving meditation as well as diversity and community engagement, Naropa’s Somatic Counseling program will help transform you into a deeply aware therapist passionate about helping others create change in their bodies, minds, and lives.
Somatic Counseling Master’s Degree Highlights
Participate as a cohort of 22 - 28 students in core classes where you will learn about yourself and enhance your interpersonal skills.
Engage in a 30-session Counseling Experiential with a qualified therapist that will give your first-hand psychotherapy experience and increased self- awareness.
Complete a 200-hour practicum and a 700-hour clinical internship.
Education in leading-edge research in developmental psychology, neuroscience and mindfulness based approaches to psychotherapy.
Culminating scholarly paper that reflects a synthesis of academic training, clinical experience, and psychological theory, formatted and submitted for publication in a professional journal.
Concentrations: Dance/Movement Therapy and Body Psychotherapy
Duration: The Somatic Counseling program is a 60-hour, full-time, three-year cohort program.
Professional Certifications: The Dance/Movement Therapy concentration is designed to meet the training guidelines of the American Dance Therapy Association and is an ADTA-approved program. This concentration fulfills the ADTA’s requirements for your initial...
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The Master of Fine Arts in Theater: Contemporary Performance is Naropa University’s interdisciplinary studio-based performance degree.
This rigorous laboratory program has been created by a faculty of first-generation innovators to encourage the next generation of pioneers in performance. Rooted in physical performance techniques that emphasize the body as source, our training explores the structures that underpin contemporary performance.
Naropa’s Contemporary Performance MFA is the first training program of its kind to explore the intersections of performance-making with contemplative arts. Creating vital and relevant new work is only part of the equation; the engaged artist must also be able to speak and write about their work. We value practice as research and dissemination; our immersive studio work will have you sweating both physically and intellectually.
Theater and performance are multidisciplinary arts and we are invested in building a multidisciplinary cohort. Whether your background is in acting, directing, design/visual arts, playwriting, performance theory, dance/movement, music, film/media, or performance art, you will engage in intensive ensemble-based training using your body, mind, and voice to create work that is unique in form and content.
We seek students from the US and all corners of the world to create a truly diverse international cohort where collaboration is informed by intercultural and multilingual dialogue.
Duration: The Contemporary Performance MFA is a 48-credit, two-year program.
Contemporary Performance MFA Degree Highlights
Develop and create original work as part of a closely connected ensemble, while at the same time being supported in your individual journey of discovery in the...
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The graduate Transpersonal Counseling Psychology programs at Naropa University take a holistic view of human psychology. Rather than viewing psychology from the perspective of mental health or illness, transpersonal psychology examines psychological experience along with the vast realm of human spiritual phenomena that include mystical or religious experiences, intuition, different states of consciousness, creativity, and contemplative practice.
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The graduate Transpersonal Counseling Psychology programs at Naropa University take a holistic view of human psychology. Rather than viewing psychology from the perspective of mental health or illness, transpersonal psychology examines psychological experience along with the vast realm of human spiritual phenomena that include mystical or religious experiences, intuition, different states of consciousness, creativity, and contemplative practice.
Offering three concentrations—Counseling Psychology, Wilderness Therapy, and Art Therapy—the Master of Arts in Transpersonal Counseling Psychology program uses a rigorous exploration of the great psychological movements of the East and West, the world's wisdom traditions, contemplative education, and practical experience to help you develop the tools to help others transcend suffering and express their fullest potential.
Transpersonal Counseling Psychology Master's Degree Highlights
Participate in a 30-hour Counseling Experiential with your own psychotherapist to acquire knowledge of yourself and the therapeutic relationship.
Complete intensive mindfulness and meditation training to develop both self-awareness and the ability to present with your clients.
Hone counseling skills during your second-year community-based practicum.
Complete a 700-hour community-based placement during your third year.
Duration: The Transpersonal Counseling Psychology programs can be completed in three years full-time or four years on a part-time basis.
Concentrations:
Counseling Psychology will prepare you to approach counseling with a transpersonal and humanistic approach.
Wilderness Therapy will prepare you to incorporate wilderness experiences into your counseling practice.
Art Therapy will prepare you to use creative expression and art for the purposes of psychological and spiritual healing.
The Art Therapy program is accredited by the American Art...
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Master

The Master of Divinity degree at Naropa University is the professional applied Religious Studies degree designed to prepare you for pastoral work, chaplaincy, social service professions, and community engagement, using wisdom gleaned from Buddhist traditions.
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What if you could prepare your heart and soul to minister to others in a Buddhist-inspired environment?
The Master of Divinity degree at Naropa University is the professional applied Religious Studies degree designed to prepare you for pastoral work, chaplaincy, social service professions, and community engagement, using wisdom gleaned from Buddhist traditions.
Taught in Naropa's Buddhist-inspired context, the MDiv program will expose you to Buddhist teachings and contemplative practices while also emphasizing an interfaith approach to pastoral practice. (You don't need to be a practicing Buddhist to flourish in the program, but we encourage a strong interest and curiosity in Buddhism.)
Applied learning in the program connects our students to professional disciplines and contexts. Students may elect to complete either a Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) internship in healthcare settings, or to do Field Education in a variety of ministry, social service, and prison settings. These opportunities, based on your interests will give you the opportunity to integrate the intellectual, contemplative, and pastoral skills you have acquired in the program in a real-world context.
By asking you to participate in the contemplative work of Tibetan Buddhism, you will ready yourself to be of service in the world, developing the awareness, courage, and compassion necessary to serve others, whether they need a celebrant or someone to ease their sorrow.
After Naropa
The Master of Divinity degree from Naropa allows you to serve as leaders, ministers, and teachers in a variety of pastoral contexts. We have graduates who are serving in healthcare settings...
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